ONE
When Knight opened his eyes, he found himself standing in the middle of a clearing in a familiar forest. His lips twitched as the summoning circle underneath his feet slowly faded, then disappeared. It was dark, and the night looked and sounded odd as it always did in this particular dreamscape, possibly because it was created from a mix of his subconscious and the human’s.
Speaking of the human ...
Knight’s blood red eyes began to glow as he took a long, slow inhale. The scent wasn’t real—not like it would’ve been had this been happening outside of the dreamscape—but it still made his lower belly clench and his mouth water. Almighty, what he wouldn’t give to actuallysmellhis prey instead of this imagined approximation.
When he was sure he’d grasped the scent, he confidently stepped out of the clearing, disappearing into the trees. He made sure to step deliberately on crunchy leaves and other debris, his progress loud and obvious. On cue, the scent in the air spiked with the sharp tang of fear and that of syrupy delicious anticipation.
Knight’s lip quirked. He didn’t run. Not yet. All his other senses sharpened instead, his ears filtering out the noise of theforest until it narrowed in on the human’s panting breath, his near-silent race through the trees ahead; his nostrils flared, his olfactory sensors so sharp he could smell the human’s sweat, couldtasteit as it filtered down to the back of his throat—salt and sour, anticipation and arousal.
When he was sure the human had put enough space between them, he began to jog. The longer and harder the chase, the more mind-numbingly intense the release was going to be. And after the stress of the past few days, he desperately needed that relief. The human probably did, too, which was why they were both here.
A few more moments, and he began to run. It didn’t take long before he’d closed the gap.
The human inhaled sharply when he glanced behind him and spotted the demon, a dark shadow within the depths of the trees. His scent spiked again with that delicious mix of fear and arousal.
A cliff’s face appeared before him, its surface crawling with thick vines.
He didn’t hesitate, grabbing the vines and beginning to frantically climb.
“Do we always have to play this game?” Knight recited, projecting his voice so it sounded like he was purring directly in the human’s ear.
The human jolted and nearly lost his grip, crying out but managing to grasp onto a vine before he crashed to the ground.
“You know I’m only toying with you, right?” Knight continued, his voice still in that low, dark purr. On his next sentence, he projected his voice so it sounded like it was reverberating directly inside the human’s brain: “We both know I’m onlylettingyou run.”
The human’s breath hitched, his scent spiking again—more arousal than fear, this time—but he didn’t otherwise react.
Knight stopped when he was at the bottom of the cliff’s face, enjoying the view of the human’s full backside, his lovely, shapely legs in thin cotton trousers as they tensed and relaxed, tensed and relaxed, his hands practically yanking him to the top. Knight inhaled deeply, swallowing back a growl. Fuck, he smelled so fucking good. Like a forbidden dessert Knight couldn’t wait to devour.
Just as the human finally pulled himself up to disappear from view onto the ground above, Knight simply blinked. He disappeared, then reappeared in front of the human at the top.
The human screamed, nearly falling backwards. Knight bared his fangs, knowing his teeth gleamed against his dark, purple skin, his red eyes glowing sickly and bright.
“Hello, little rabbit,” he whispered.
The human scrambled to his feet. Knight only just managed to duck when a rock was lobbed in his direction, before the human ran straight for the trees.
Knight gave him a moment, then he began to run, too, deliberately matching the human’s speed instead of using his own supernatural skills.
A creek appeared, and the human’s scent spiked again, even though he didn’t hesitate, running straight into the rushing water, arms held aloft as he waded as quickly as he could for the other side.
He glanced behind him, his thundering heartbeat stuttering when he found Knight just standing there on the riverbank, watching him.
When he finally made it to dry ground once more, glancing again behind him, Knight used his magic between one blink and the next to appear in front of him.
The human cried out. Knight grabbed him by the waist and yanked him up, into his arms. The human wasn’t a small creature by any means, tall with meat thick on his bones, andKnight could tell—even from the approximate scents in the dreamscape—the human loved the fact that Knight could move him about like he weighed nothing.
“Fuck off,” he snarled, beginning to struggle and kick. “Let me go!”
“Okay,” Knight said brightly, abruptly dropping him.
He gasped, only just managing to catch himself on his feet. Knight pretended not to smell the disappointment and the brief pang of annoyance in the air, grinning wider when the human spun around and ran right back into the creek.
He’d made it about halfway through, the water about midriff height, when Knight teleported to him, his surprised shout echoing through the trees as Knight seized him from behind.
He tried to kick his leg backward, but Knight used his magic to clamp those thick, sexy thighs together, immobilising him. He tried to use his hands, and Knight grabbed those, too, using his left hand to pin the human’s wrists to his broad chest, which was heaving with exertion.
